Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility

Our hearts are heavy with the enormous loss and destruction Oregon and other Western states have endured this past week from devastating wildfires. Unhealthy air from wildfire smoke continues to blanket our region. The cities of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue Valley have been decimated, including the main offices of our valued partner, Rogue Climate. Communities in Clackamas County, Marion County, Lane County, and Jackson County have been displaced and are in urgent need of support. Meanwhile, intense hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and typhoons in Japan confirm that climate chaos is upon us.

The fracked gas industry wants to build the world’s largest fracked gas-to-methanol refinery in Kalama, WA. Kalama lies on the Washington side of the Columbia River less than an hour north of Portland, and if constructed, the facility would threaten the health of our entire region. The proposed refinery would consume a staggering amount of fracked gas, more than all of Washington’s gas-fired power plants combined. It would convert the fracked gas to methanol, which would be shipped overseas to be burned as fuel or used as feedstock to make plastics.

Oregon PSR's Board President, Dr. Patrick O'Herron, submitted testimony on behalf of Oregon PSR about police accountability legislative concepts to to the Oregon Legislature's Joint Committee On Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform on September 3rd, 2020. Read our testimony below. 

NuScale Power, a small modular nuclear reactor development firm based in Oregon, is seeking approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the design of their initial reactor model. The company has an agreement with the Utah Association of Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), a collection of small publicly-owned municipal utilities in Utah, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming, to deploy a first-of-its-kind plant of a dozen 60-megawatt (MW) pressurized water reactors grouped in a common containment facility at the Idaho National Laboratory site, assisted by a proposed power purchase agreement to sell some of the output to the US Department of Energy. As of August 2020, UAMPS has not found subscribers for all the power that this plant would produce if constructed.

Oregon PSR mourns the death of longtime member Robert "Bob" McFarlane, MD earlier this year. Bob was a committed activist and leader in the peace and justice community. He was deeply involved with Oregon PSR, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the nuclear freeze movement, and was a member of the Hanford Advisory Board, among his other peace and social justice work.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) has proposed new rules to strengthen protections for Oregonians from chlorpyrifos pesticides. Chlorpyrifos are an extremely harmful insecticide that causes neurological harm, risk of cancer, and damage to bees, butterflies, and birds. It’s important to show the ODA that you care about protecting human and environmental health from chlorpyrifos exposure. See the full 2020 Chlorpyrifos proposed rules here. 

Other states including Hawaií, California, and New York have taken steps to ban or severely restrict chlorpyrifos. Oregon had a bill in the state legislature in 2020 that Oregon PSR submitted testimony in support of that would have taken steps towards limiting chlorpyrifos and protecting public health. Since the Republican walkout stalled many important bills, the ODA is moving forward with new proposed rules to reign in this dangerous pesticide. The proposed rules, OAR-603-057-0545, are good but need to be even stronger.

Alissa Vandenbark (pictured above) interned with Oregon PSR remotely throughout the summer of 2020, pivoting plans for an in-person internship in Portland to a completely virtual work experience as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. During her time with Oregon PSR, Alissa provided much-needed support for our Healthy Climate and Peace Programs, assisted with our membership and development efforts, and led an interview and documentation project relative to Oregon PSR’s shifting work during the pandemic. We are very grateful to Alissa for her many contributions to our work, especially under such unexpected and often challenging circumstances, and we wish her the absolute best in her future endeavors. Thanks so much, Alissa!

Oregon PSR is actively recruiting a cohort of new Board members to help guide our work. Read on to see if you or someone you know might be interested in applying for Board membership.

Oregon PSR's 2020 Summer Intern Alissa Vandenbark (pictured above) interviewed members of our staff, Board of Directors, and some of our volunteers to see how our work has changed in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please continue reading to learn more about how our work has shifted over the past few months.

Thanks to years of communities coming together to stop the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and Pacific Connector fracked gas pipeline, Senators Wyden and Merkley have joined Southern Oregon in opposing this project that would strip land from private property owners, impact the traditional territories and cultural resources of Tribal Nations, harm the local commercial fishing industry, and become the largest single greenhouse gas emitter in the state.

US Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley introduced two bills in Congress that would stop fossil fuel corporations from using eminent domain for fracked gas export pipelines. Will you help thank Oregon’s Senators for their efforts to stand up against the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal and fracked gas pipeline?